What is it? Charley horse?

[tenel_ka]

Hi kiddos. I'm here today to share with you my favorite book ever. It's called The Long Walk and it's by Stephen King. And thus ends my show and tell. XD

Seriously though, I was reading through this thing again and my god, I had forgotten how amazing it was. Now, I love when King does horror/crazy diseases/killer cars/omg. The Shining, The Stand, Pet Sematary -- but my favorite works of his are the ones where nothing supernatural or out of the ordinary happens and he just sneaks his way into the mind of a human being. The Body (the basis for Stand By Me), Rage and this book, The Long Walk. It's a story about friendship and human endurance -- in a disturbing little setting.

Let me give you a nice happy rundown.

One hundred teenage boys (picked at random from a large pool of applicants) are chosen to participate in an annual walking contest called "The Long Walk". Each walker must maintain a constant speed of no less than four miles an hour, or he receives a warning. Warnings are given for a variety of other offenses, including assaulting another walker or deviating from the walk's set course. Walkers may "lose" warnings by walking for one hour without being warned. If, however, a Walker with three warnings slows down again, or breaks any other rule, he is shot by the soldiers monitoring the event from halftracks.

And how awesome and disturbing is the newest cover?

Anyways, this book has my favorite character ever in it - okay, yeah, second only to Jacen Solo. D: His name is Peter McVries (#61 <3) and he is a brilliantly written piece of work, this one. He is absolutely beautiful and I'll tell you right now -- you can't get attached to anyone in this book because 99 of them are going to die. And I have read this book at least 15 times, and every single fucking time I get to McVries' time to go I bawl my eyes out like a baby. D:

He basically joined the Walk as a means of suicide. And sadly, he's the one the main character, Ray Garraty (#47), gets closest to.

One of the strongest points in this book is the dialogue. It's incredible the exchanges these guys have -- I've never laughed harder.



McVries: Walk into the sunset, okay. True love either way. Do you believe in true love, Hank, dear?
Olson: I believe in a good screw.
Baker: *cackles*
Garraty: I believe in true love.
Olson: You want to know why I don't? Ask Fenter. Ask Zuck. They know.
Pearson: That's a hell of an attitude.
McVries: No, it's not. Nobody loves a deader.
Baker: Edgar Allan Poe did. I did a report on him in school and it said he had tendencies that were ne-necro--
Garraty: Necrophiliac.
Baker: Yeah, that's right.
Pearson: What's that?
Baker: It means you got an urge to sleep with a dead woman. Or a dead man, if you're a woman.
McVries: Or you're a fruit.
Olson: How the hell did we get on this? Just how in the hell did we get on the subject of screwing dead people? It's fucking repulsive.
Abraham: Why not? I think we all might take a moment to stop and think about whatever kind of sex life there may be in the next world.
McVries: I get Marilyn Monroe. You can have Eleanor Roosevelt, Abe old buddy.
Abraham: *gives him the finger*
Olson: Just a second now. Just one motherfucking second here. You're all off the subject. All off.




Then you have the opposite of scenes like that...



Barkovitch: It was his own fault! You saw him, he swung first! Rule 8! Rule 8!
McVries: Go on back and dance on him a little, Barkovitch. Go entertain us. Boogie on him a little bit, Barkovitch.
Barkovitch: Your mother sucks cock on 42nd street too, scarface.
McVries: Can't wait to see your brains all over the road. I'll cheer when it happens, you murdering little bastard.




McVries also rambles a lot and gets the coolest quote in the book, when he's creeping out on Garraty.



McVries looked at him closely. "Getting tired?"

"No," Garraty said. "I've been tired for quite awhile now." He looked at McVries with something like animosity. "You mean you're not?"

McVries said, "Just go on dancing with me like this forever, Garraty, and I'll never tire. We'll scrape our shoe on the stars and hang upside down from the moon."

He blew Garraty a kiss and walked away.

Garraty looked after him. He didn't know what to make of McVries.



I also will never get over the "YOU'RE CHEATING, YOU FUCK." scene. This book, dude. It's not a freakin' literary masterpiece ten-thousand prize winning piece of work, but I think that's why I love it so much. It hits something with me and I find myself wanting to read it over and over again, even if it depresses the everloving crap out of me. D:

Srsly though, if you are ever looking for a book to pass some of your time... thiiiiiiis book. <333 Looooove~ McVriesssssss. <3

Comments

[sarisa.livejournal.com]

AUGH, I've yet to read this book, to my great dismay. (Along with the dismay that the, as yet, unread Gunslinger series provokes.) King just makes me HECK YES!! so much with his sprawling, interconnected, unsettling mythos; it's our generation's Lovecraftian response, and he does it with panache. When he's not being lazy and confusing character depth with wacky accents, that is, LOLZ. The Stand is still my favourite acid trip in the WORLD, ♥.

[tenel-ka.livejournal.com]

OMG, you must read this book. It is so incredible. And it's just a bunch of dudes walking. He is such a great author and I hate when people pass him off cause they think he's just "some horror guy" -- like, PEOPLE HAVE YOU EVEN READ HIS STUFF? D:

(AND THE STAND = LOVE. NICK ANDROS~ ;-;)

[eleventh-guard.livejournal.com]

Damn, I forgot all about that book. I can't remember when I read it - I want to say 1998 or so, but I'm not sure. And it was wonderful. Seconding your recommendation. :) I should probably read it again.

[tenel-ka.livejournal.com]

Eeeeee! You should read it again! That's one of the best things about this book -- it's not incredibly long and it's so easy to reread. I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has read it (and enjoyed it!)~ :D

[jainanicole.livejournal.com]

Never heard of it, sounds interesting!

[tenel-ka.livejournal.com]

It iiiiiiiis! You should check it out! :D It's a spretty short read and once you pick it up, you can't put it down.